Economic development may seem to be solely about recruiting and retaining businesses, but housing is also an element and it needs more attention locally, the audience at Thursday’s Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance event learned.

Asked during the Meet and Eat session at Shiny Top Brewing if there is a quick fix for the city’s housing shortage, Dennis Plautz, the chief executive officer of the Growth Alliance, replied that there is not.

He said that every housing unit that gets built is purchased or occupied quickly.

According to Plautz, there are about 30 homes for sale on the local real estate agents’ Multiple Listing Service. In the past there have been about 300.

”That alone tells you that there is a problem,” he said.

”We have got to reconstitute a housing incentive program,” he said. ”We have to be doing more to promote housing.”

According to Plautz, the Fort Dodge Betterment Foundation has made an offer to buy some land that would be made available for housing development. He did not offer any details.

In 2016, the Betterment Foundation and the city government teamed up to buy land on the north side of Fort Dodge between Williams Drive and North 15th Street for housing development. Since then about 35 single family houses and about 20 townhome buildings with two units in each have been constructed there.

Housing wasn’t the only topic of discussion Thursday.

City Manager David Fierke reported that construction of the new Fort Dodge Fiber broadband utility will begin this summer, with completion expected in 2023.

He urged everyone who might be interested in the service to register on the Fort Dodge Fiber website.

”Registration is not a commitment,” he said. ”What we want to know is who is interested in having the fiber to their home. It’s really important to get registered.”

Webster County Supervisor Niki Conrad provided an update on outdoor recreation projects that will soon be underway.

The county Board of Supervisors is seeking bids for construction of a nature center that Conrad said will be ”really focusing on the beauty of the Des Moines River and what it has to offer.”

She added that trail work is planned around Badger Lake in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and near Badger, Dayton and Gowrie.

”The trails are a way to connect the communities,” she said.

She added that there have been some discussions about connecting trails in Webster County to those in Humboldt County.